Ray Pitman, who died on June 5, 1998, joined the Hampshire ground staff in
1948 at the tender age of 15, but he had to wait six years until making his
first-class debut, although the period included two years away on National
Service.

It was a long apprenticeship, but writing of the second eleven performances in
1951, Desmond Eagar in the official history states that despite only two wins in
the Minor Counties Championship, "it gave us great cause for satisfaction that
so many of our regular players in this competition were young boys who had been
born and bred in Hampshire, and who had been taught their cricket in Hampshire
schools and on our own county ground". He instanced Pitman along with Burden,
Barnard, Heath and Sainsbury in this category.

Raymond Walter Charles Pitman was born at Bartley on February 21, 1933. A
right-hand batsman, he finally made his first-class debut against Oxford University
in June, 1954, scoring 0 and 48. He went on to play a total of 50 matches for
Hampshire between then and 1959, but his aggregate of 926 runs in 76 innings
produced an average of only 13.61.

He scored just one fifty, his 77 coming in the last match of the 1958 season,
against Derbyshire at Bournemouth. Batting at four, he top scored after Les
Jackson had dismissed the first three batsmen with only 26 on the board. Colin
Ingleby-Mackenzie's 55 helped the county to 193, but after Derbyshire were all out
for 107, Hampshire succumbed for 61 in the second innings and lost by five wickets.
Pitman had played in the infamous match just three weeks earlier when 39 wickets
fell in one day at Burton-on-Trent and Hampshire were dismissed for 23 and 55.
Jackson in the two matches captured 20 wickets for 91 runs.

He held 42 catches but his right-arm medium fast bowling was rarely used, and he
took just one first-class wicket for 68 runs. Yet for the 2nd XI in 1959 - the
inaugural season of the 2nd XI Championship - he topped the bowling averages with
16 wickets at 15.37, as well as scoring 364 runs at 21.41.

Ray Pitman subsequently held a coaching and administrative post at Rydal School in
Wales. He had just retired at 65 when he was diagnosed with cancer.

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